Jenna's blog: 'blogging is not serious writing' got me thinking, which is one of the best outcomes of reading text in any form whether it be from academic journals or a blogging community. (That is my take on that). I started thinking about: convergence of University speak and popular speak and the ways that academic writings and blogging intersect (Jenkins). The power is in the ideas, and as J & J were discussing, the message can be shared in either form but the importance is who the message is intended for and how they seek out the information. For example, I may want to write an academic piece for a peer-reviewed journal. I am still having trouble grasping a concept or finding additional resources therefore I pose questions on my blog post and try to work around the ideas of which I want to publish. I think Jenna has been doing this for a while now. I see blogging as a great tool for her to practice her thoughts before setting them in an academic forum. This may seem to go along with the idea that blogging is not academic, but it really exemplifies that the ideas are of academic quality, just not in the traditional academic form (or they could possibly be posted in that form, but who would want to read that?).
People will seek the information they need or want. Blogs are just an alternative source. This is the concept I will be trying to situate this semester: New media is just a different source for learning. But which forms elicit the most learning? Does it matter or is it subjective? Can new media always be used as another source or are there fields that need to be traditionally centered to postulate learning?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What you outline above sounds like a great mini-proposal idea! I was also wondering on what your take would be on blogs as a reflection site for P254/P251 service learning? Right now, they write reflective memos on a weekly basis but blogs might enable them to share more of their experience... Perhaps because they are Undergrads, they could maintain a group blog? Just throwing ideas out here... Based on your experiences thus far, what do you think some of the affordances and limitations of blogging would be in this context? Do you think that it would enrichen service learning?
ReplyDeleteI think the context really matters. So the blogs for P251/4 would be great! They could share their different experiences in a traditional or alternative setting and try to elicit the educative points from both. Sometimes verbal sharing in class doesn't hit home as well as reading print. I think students could benefit from hearing similarities between environments but also the differences that can benefit an educator in either position.
ReplyDeleteAs for service learning. I see blogs as a spring board for conversation--brainstorming. It would take a lot for blogs to be a platform--unless one is developed to assist in understanding civic/political concepts. It is just that blogs are group specific. You have to find a niche to read, and so I wonder how effective they would be to share information broadly. Once again, I think it would be case specific or context specific.